Simultaneous Organic and Inorganic Analysis of Colored Oriental Lacquerware by Pyrolysis-Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Organic analysis and inorganic analysis are generally based on different physical principles, and for this reason it is difficult to analyze resins and pigments simultaneously. For these reasons, we have performed Py-GC/MS measurements of red-, yellow-, and green-colored lacquer films applied to lacquerware items to assess the feasibility of simultaneously detecting resin ingredients together with certain pigments. We have also compared our findings to the results of SEM-EDS, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), and X-ray diffractometry (XRD) measurements. XRD analysis yielded molecular-level information (information on binding states) regarding mercury (Hg) and iron (Fe); however, the information obtained for arsenic (As) and sulfur (S) was insufficient. In contrast, Py-GC/MS analyses simultaneously yielded molecular-level information on arsenic (As) and sulfur (S) together with detection of the primary ingredients of the lacquer. For this reason, it shows that several pieces of information is provided easily and quickly when the colored lacquer cultural heritage is measured using the Py-GC/MS method.